As the prices of other food ingredients rise, food manufacturers are increasingly turning to cellulose so that they can keep production costs low. Even big organic brands like Organic Valley are not immune from the appeal.

Organic Valley uses powdered cellulose made from wood pulp in its shredded-cheese products. The company would prefer not to use a synthetic ingredient, but cellulose is bland, white and repels moisture, making it the favored choice over products such as potato starch, says Tripp Hughes, director of product marketing for Organic Valley. (source)

The appeal of cellulose as an additive

During the past two years, sales of cellulose have increased by 8%. This, when the average annual increase is 3%. What accounts for the rise in popularity? The Wall-Street Journalreports:

While some food manufactures say they aren’t increasing the percentage of cellulose in their products, others are boosting the amount of fiber in their foods with cellulose and other ingredients. Companies can save money by using it, even though it costs more by weight than conventional ingredients. Cellulose gives food “more water, more air, a creamy feeling in [the] mouth with less of other ingredients,” and only a very small amount is needed, says Niels Thestrup, vice president of the hydrocolloids department for Danisco AS. The Copenhagen-based company makes ingredients and enzymes for food, cleaning supplies and other products.

This is why cellulose gets added to non-fat and low-fat foods like low-fat ice cream, sour cream, yogurt, and non-dairy creamers, among others. It gives the mouth-feel of creaminess when the real cream is removed. If you aren’t already avoiding low-fat versions of real foods, perhaps this will provide you with the final push you need to change to eating full-fat, real food. After all, not only is full-fat dairy generally unadulterated and more natural compared to its low-fat counterparts, it has also been shown to lower risk of heart attacks.

How cellulose is made

Lest you protest and say “cellulose is in every plant food out there, now you’re saying it’s bad for me?,” let me explain the process by which the cellulose used as a food additive is made:

Cellulose comes in various forms, each with a specific use. Beyond powdered cellulose, two other modified forms are common in food. Microcrystalline cellulose is either listed as such on labels, as MCC, or in some cases as cellulose gel. Carboxymethyl cellulose or cellulose gum, another modified version, is listed as such on labels. Each gives foods a slightly different texture — from gelatinous to more liquid-like — because they trap varying amounts of air or water.

Powdered cellulose is made by cooking raw plant fiber — usually wood — in various chemicals to separate the cellulose, and then purified. Modified versions go through extra processing, such as exposing them to acid to further break down the fiber. (source)

In other words, this is not the cellulose you’d get from eating broccoli. No, this is cellulose that’s created in a laboratory, by a convoluted process you’d find difficult (if not impossible) to replicate in your own kitchen. And did I mention it’s made from wood pulp?

And yet, this unnatural food additive is considered “natural” by our government — so natural that it’s even allowed in foods bearing the “organic” label.

But, is added cellulose “safe”?

Well, your government says it is.

What? That’s not good enough for you? You don’t trust them? How about nutritionists?

Although the notion of eating fine grains of wood pulp might make some consumers blanch, nutritionists say cellulose — which gives plants their structure — is a harmless fiber that can often cut calories in food. Insoluble dietary fibers like cellulose aren’t digestible by humans so add bulk to food without making it more fattening.

Cellulose can serve as a good source of dietary fiber for people who don’t eat enough fruits, vegetables or whole grains, Ms. Slavin says. The USDA’s most recent dietary guidelines recommend young women get 28 grams a day of fiber and young men consume 38 grams.

“Cellulose is cellulose,” regardless of if whether it comes from wood pulp or celery, says Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a group that advocates healthier, more nutritious food. He says no research points to health problems related to consuming cellulose.

The Food and Drug Administration sets limits on the amount of cellulose in certain foods like cheese spreads and jams. The USDA also limits the amount of cellulose in meat products to about 1% to 4%, depending on the type, in order to meet the agency’s standards for protein content.

Yes, I said “cotton in your salad dressing.” Thank you, Kraft Foods, for making such statements actually truthful and not merely the figment of a childish, over-active imagination.

What can you do?

Well, stop buying shredded cheese, for one thing. Buy cheese by the block and shred it or slice it yourself. You’ll save money, and you won’t be eating wood pulp. It’s a win, win! Want to know how to prioritize your cheese choices? Check out this post on Healthy Cheese: What To Buy.

Secondly, you should stop buying the reduced fat versions of full fat foods. Good fat from real food is actually healthy for you. Plus, when you take the fat out of traditionally fatty foods, you’ve got to replace it with something. That usually results in ingredient labels that read like chemistry text books.

And lastly, stick to eating foods with ingredient labels you actually understand — or better yet, foods without ingredient labels at all! These are whole foods. Cook from scratch with them, and you’ll always know what’s in your food.

About the Author

Kristen Michaelis is a passionate advocate for REAL FOOD -- food that's sustainable, organic, local, and traditionally-prepared according to the wisdom of our ancestors. While she adores hats & happy skirts, nothing inspires her quite like geeking out over nutrition & sustainable agriculture. Nutrition educator & author extraordinaire, she's also a rebel with a cause who enjoys playing in the rain, a good bottle of Caol Ila scotch, curling up with a page-turning book, sunbathing on her hammock, and watching her three children grow into young adults.

Comments

Wait, what? So, it’s completely safe, has many benefits, and yet… you have an issue with this? Are you all dumb? There’s a TON of unnatural things out there. Who cares if it’s unnatural? Ever brush your teeth? BUT THAT’S MAN MADE, IT’S UNNATURAL! What about taken a pill of…any kind? ALSO UNNATURAL!!!!! We’d better eat nothing but free-range chicken dry, and use leaves to wipe our butts, and not take care of ourselves when we get sick.

Well if this isn’t a parody of what it means to eat “natural” food, I don’t know what is! We’re talking about FOOD here, the sacred life-giving stuff we put into our bodies. Not toothbrushes.

And, please, in future comments refrain from calling others dumb. You may see my comments policy for more details.

You’re missing my point. Perhaps instead of “unnatural,” I should have said “non-traditional.” In my mind, the two run kind of parallel, but you’ve pointed out how far the definition of “unnatural” can be stretched. And, subsequently, you’re missing my point.

I want to eat food that’s REAL, first and foremost — that means that it’s old and traditional, not a newly invented food that’s only made possible by industrial food science.

For more about why this distinction is important to me (and others), try reading my ABOUT page.

Chemicals eh? Well, I guess nothing is safe because ALL MATTER IS CHEMICALS! That broccoli you eat? Chemicals. That egg? Chemicals. Water? Chemicals. The air you breath? Chemicals. YOURSELF? Chemicals.

Shit. I guess we should just ban everything, because after all, chemicals are bad.

Canadian Man you are correct, wood pulp cellulose is very much like sugar in the sense that most people consume far too much of it. The bottom line for me is the fact that more recent studies repeatedly reveal adverse health effects from processed foods in general. When you choose whole fruits and vegetables more often than wood pulp cellulose, obviously you’re getting more nutrition in your diet. The only thing I suggest to Kristen is that we don’t need the all-caps “WOOD PULP” hyperbole when the choice is already so simple.

I’m willing to bet that you raise your own pigs and grow your own veggies if eating pulp from trees is ‘unnatural’ to you. Heck, you consume billions of foreign bacterial bodies a day with your food. I honestly don’t get the issue here.

I came here wanting to learn why cellulose from wood pulp was bad and what the difference was.

Instead i read a comically writen article which reads as cellulose good but wood eww.

What i have learned is that thanks to cellulose i have food with a longer shelf life and less additives.

Also cellulose exists in nature. It is natural.

I would also like to point out that your article is very misleading. Upon further research the chemicals that you decry are actually just one chemical. Acetic acid is used to break down wood pulp. The wood pulp is boiled in water. The slurry is separated with a hose. There are instructions on how to make it at home online. Acetic acid is just vinegar.

The only reason i post this is so people that are worried (like myself at one time) have peace of mind.

I started noticing crap in shredded cheese when I was on the Atkin’s diet. I was incredulous to the fact that cheese had so many grams of carbs. Then I read the ingredients on my 100% cheese. Gag me with a spoon.

I’m allergic to some trees. I’d say this IS a problem. I have recently had an allergic response to cheese that I did not have before. This explains quote a bit since I normally grate the cheese myself but my husband bought it grated and voila– ill. Truth in ingredient listings could save many of us from unnecessary ills.

I had an idea the other day. What if you had to answer a little quiz, maybe three multiple choice questions, about the content of an article before you were allowed to comment on it. What do you think? Would that improve the quality of the conversation, if we could avoid some of the comments from people who just skimmed, or didn’t finish the article? “Lest you protest and say “cellulose is in every plant food out there, now you’re saying it’s bad for me?,” let me explain the process by which the cellulose used as a food additive is made…In other words, this is not the cellulose you’d get from eating broccoli. No, this is cellulose that’s created in a laboratory, by a convoluted process you’d find difficult (if not impossible) to replicate in your own kitchen.”

Fight this with your wallets! Breads had this same stuff in it about 25 years ago, and when enough people stopped buying the brands to which cellulose had been added, the bread companies caved to the pressure and stopped putting wood in their bread!

One approach to avoid knock-off food is to wean ourselves from the grocery store and become locavores. Dairy, meat, eggs & produce should (as much a possible) be acquired from our immediate and neighboring communities. Condiments and beverages can be fermented in our own kitchens.

If we can do this, we can put all of the food & drug commercials on fast forward, because they won’t pertain to us.

If companies would stop using deceptive terminology and used everyday layman’s language for ingredient labeling, we wouldn’t have this problem…hmmm, maybe we can change the labeling law: “Truth in Labeling.”

Good to know. I just started buying block cheese because I recently bought a vacuum-sealer machine. I can now buy a huge block of cheese without worrying about it going bad and shred it when I need some.

Ah, well if this weren’t enough, guess what else they use cellulose for? K-Y jelly. Yum! I’ve said it before and will say it again, our nations infatuation with cheap food has got to raise eyebrows. What does one think is IN a 99cent burger. I’d feel better if it WERE KY Jelly, but I think it’s something scarier. LEARN TO COOK. Love a farmer.

What saddens me is that the Victorians often adulterated food; this was legislated out of the food supply in the early 20th century, and guess what, now the adulteration is legal! What is the difference from sawdust in bread and cellulose in cheese?

I started shredding my own cheese a long time ago. I had a gut feeling that the powdery coating on store bought shredded cheese wasn’t something I wanted in my body. Once I got my food processor, shredding cheese became unbelievably easy–and you really do save a lot of money shredding it yourself!

Okay, this is just gross…first meat glue, and now this. you are so right–the only way to avoid this stuff is to stick to whole foods. And it occurs to me that I won’t get splinters from my broccoli, but what about wood pulp cellulose?? And if the cotton isn’t organic, it’s been treated with tons of pesticides–I had no idea that was getting into “food”. Thank you for the info!!

Um….NO. Cinnamon is traditionally a spice we add to food. We’ve done it for thousands of years. Wood pulp? Cotton? Not so much. These are newfangled additions to our food supply, only really possible because of the marvels of industry and science. For more information about why that little distinction is important to me, read my ABOUT page.

Thanks again, Kristin – not that I buy these products, but it’s still great to know, and great to have it reaffirmed that WHOLE foods are the way to go! Thanks so much for your time and research and passion for real food and health. : )

My husband thinks I’m crazy because I’ve been slowly whittling away at the processed food we purchase. I looked at what my family ate a lot of, like peanut butter, milk, and cheese, and they went first. Thanks so much for putting this information out there – some people won’t believe anything unless they see it in writing.

Disturbingly unnatural? I’m all for avoiding HFCS, preservatives and MSG, but I don’t see how this is gross or disturbing in comparison to anything else that we eat. A cellulose additive sounds no worse than something like a multivitamin or Metamucil.

We eat foods that are made with bacteria and yeast poop. We eat fungi, undeveloped bird embryos and milk of other mammals. Our dietary requirements include metals!

Sheesh people, I hope you realize cellulose from wood pulp is probably the cleanest thing you have in your diet. It’s a whole lot more natural than your twinkies, chicken nuggets, and just about everything else.

I seriously doubt any of the regular readers of this site, or the people who are alarmed by the fact that there is wood pulp in their cheese, are the kinds of people who eat twinkies or chicken nuggets. More likely, they’re the kinds of people who avoid processed foods altogether.

Perhaps I’m rare, but the thought of eating bacteria and yeast poop actually thrills me — all those good probiotics! I don’t view that as unnatural food at all, since we’ve been eating it for thousands upon thousands of years. (Where do we think traditionally fermented foods like sauerkraut, cheese, and sourdough bread come from, anyway?)

Perhaps instead of “unnatural,” I should have said “non-traditional.” In my mind, the two run kind of parallel, but other commenters have pointed out how far the definition of “unnatural” can be stretched. And, subsequently, they’re missing my point.

I want to eat food that’s REAL, first and foremost — that means that it’s old and traditional, not a newly invented food that’s only made possible by industrial food science. A buttermilk and mayonnaise blend you whip together in 30 seconds and toss a few fresh herbs into? Real food. Deriving cellulose from cotton and adding it to your “ranch” salad dressing so that it’s creamier? Not so real.

For more about why this distinction is important to me (and others), try reading my ABOUT page.

I’ve read your About page and your point is taken, Kristen. We just draw the line at different places.

I don’t eat fast food and I avoid prepackaged food with hundreds of ingredients that I can’t recognize, but I agree with the quote that “cellulose is cellulose” just as a tomato is just a tomato to me — with or without an organic label.

There is something ironic here. Since this post it has come about that unpasteurized milk certainly has extreme health benefits. So your smug coup de grace moment is absolutely ruined :D.

In the end, I indeed agree with your main point hah! The process by which they’re getting their cellulose is a bit unnerving, but that’s as far as it goes, bring me the pre-grated prepackaged insanely convenient cheese, and while they all slave away in the hot kitchen I will continue writing inane posts on the internet! Wait …

Oh, but eating wood extract in wine and whiskey is OK… or eating grass-fed beef that’s been smoked with hickory is OK… Just because an ingredient goes through some steps of “processing” does not immediately make it “BAD”. Almost everything you eat has some level of processing, often in ways that you can not easily replicate in your own kitchen. This manic obsession with “processed” or “natural” foods are has led to stupidity like “organic salt”.

I’m all in favor of processed foods — so long as it’s the kind of processing that’s been traditionally done by home cooks for many hundreds, if not thousands of years. I can think of a host of examples — like turning cream into butter, milk into cheese, fermenting cabbage with salt and wild lacto-bacillus cultures to create sauerkraut, or boiling sap to create syrups.

You’re right. Processing is not inherently bad.

What *is* bad is the way that these traditionally processed foods have been altered by industrial processing methods so that they’re stripped of their nutritional value, life-giving enzymes, and probiotic benefit. Sauerkraut is an excellent example of a traditional food gone awry in the wake of industrial processing. Now instead of being a living, probiotic-rich food full of good bacteria, sauerkraut is a dead, vinegar-swamped food that tastes little like the real thing.

So, once we have been adding wood pulp to cheese at home for 200 years it should be ok then?

You wouldn’t believe what they use to keep bread dough from sticking to counters.. they grind up this genetically differentiated grass into tiny bits and then just sprinkle it on the outside! MONSTERS!

(Its called “flour” and we should ban it! what is that some kind of chemical!?!)

The irony here. Flour is one of the number one causes of dietary disease, IBS issues, cause of wheat intolerance, obesity – (without flour we wouldnt have the abundance of cakes/sweets). It is a nutritionally dead powder, fortified with synthetic lab made vitamins, ultra high GI and contributes to insulin spikes and diabetes, celiac disease, and direct correlations with the increase in flour in our diet to cancer, stroke, mental disorders etc..

My thought would be..and I don’t presume to answer for Kristin, is that if something has been prepared and consumed a certain way for hundreds or thousands of years, it has simply stood “the test of time” for safety. I guess we will know soon enough if our current food processing techniques will cause chronic illness and/or premature death. Oh, wait…

I care if it is safe, if instead of cellulose they were adding an unsafe chemical such as melamine, I’d think you would care too. In 2008 13 infants died because of melamine added to infant formula. Safety first.

How so? Unless Food Renegade amended this article since the original post, she explains that the process of creating cellulose powder and gums involves chemicals and solvents. It is not the same thing as merely grinding flour from wheat or grain.

I can in theory, grow grain in my back yard and grind it in my home mill (or pound it between rocks even) and make flour. I’m not sure I’d have the same success trying to extract cellulose powder from my firewood.

In the scheme of things, cellulose is not on my list of the most noxious food additives I have come across. On the other hand, if the point of eating is to nourish my body, then wood pulp comes up a little short.

Wood does a body good. A buddy of mine is a chemist at a plant next to the paper mill that uses by products of paper manufacturing to make cholesterol lowering food additives and drugs. Not sure what its is but any thing to lower my cholesterol has got to be bad for you.

Good article… but, I laughed at the ridiculousness of you saying you can’t finish a apple in a single sitting? A 3 year old can eat a whole apple… so that makes me think you are either bulimic, have food ADD, or you have the body size of an infant.

Who cares if the cellolouse in cheese is taken from the source where it is most abundant — trees? Just because the ingredient is processed does not automatically mean it is unhealthy, and just because something doesn’t occur in nature doesn’t mean it’s unhealthy. I definitely see the benefit of eating ‘real food’ for almost everything, but making it sound like the cellolouse in cheese is bad for when every source you cite says otherwise seems rather alarmist to me.

At least it’s better than soy. Ever notice how much soy is in everything? I mean everything. Soy is bad for you in large quantities–Europe has already begun restricting soy in their foods. And a lot of what we eat is actually the stem of trees anyway so it’s not so bad. Aspirin comes from willow bark, so does cinnamon. We eat a lot of roots and leaves too–carrots, spinach, turnips, etc. Tree or wood does not necessarily = bad.

Wow! You really do learn something new everyday! I have no problem eating wood pulp as it’s all natual, but when I read further and found out that it’s a chemical process to get to this stuff I gotta say nay on any wood pulp. Thanks btw!

What is it about it that makes it BAD? I have never seen anything specific on this. No symptoms it can cause, or ailments. I have only seen scare tactics such as “OMG WOOD IS IN YOUR FOOD!” Don’t get me wrong, I am against food additives and I am on a quest to eat only real foods, but I just really wanted to know what specifically made this so bad and what it can do to you. Thanks!!

The chemicals they used to extract it concerns me, but not so much the wood chips, actually. We have recently acquired a hamster, and one of it’s needs, listed right there in the Hampster care book, is wood to chew on. Tons of animals eat wood. We don’t because…well, splinters. But I know there must be nutrition in it or other animals woudln’t eat it. If we’ve found a safe way to tap that, not sure that’s bad.

Hamsters eating wood doesn’t mean humans eat wood. Koalas eat gum leaf/eucalyptus, try chewing on one of those leaves and you’ll quickly realize that different species can eat different things. Rabbits will die from red cabbage. No wood chips for me, thank you very much.

This IS an alarmists view. We might as well ban dihydrogen oxide while we’re at it. You would probably starve to death if you completely avoided cellulose. As others have said, it is in pretty much all fruits and vegetables you eat. Not only that, but the chemicals removed from the wood pulp are still present in those fruits and vegetables. And, just for clarity, EVERYTHING is “chemicals”, even the dihydrogen oxide you so despartely need to consume regularly.

I am an engineer that works in a pulp mill where we process wood chips into fiber for making paper. Let it be known that I would have NO problem ingesting wood pulp, let alone purified cellulose that is used in food. All that is left when wood fiber is processed for food use is cellulose. Cellulose is a NATURAL polymer of sugar. We as humans lack the ability to break down cellulose, unlike say, a termite or cow or horse or bacteria, so we derive no nutrition from it. It passes right through our digestive tract, but we do derive some benefit as fiber. The chemical processing of the wood does not appreciably change the chemical structure of the cellulose making it suddenly toxic or anything. The chemicals, which are actually very common, nothing exotic, cook away the lignin and some of the cellulose components. They are then washed out and recovered for recycling back in the process. The cooking is all done under high temperature and pressure. It is quite possible to make wood pulp in your kitchen, just not as fast.

I’m not saying you should go eat a paper grocery bag, although it would not hurt you, but cellulose is certainly one of the safest food additives there is.

I will say though that breathing wood dust is not healthy. That has been shown to cause cancer in people who inhale a lot of it. It is a little like asbestos in that regard. Some people are also allergic to wood dust. However, the allergy is not to the cellulose, it is to the other NATURAL CHEMICALS present in the wood. If you were allergic to cellulose, you would probably quickly die. So if you feel you are allergic to the added cellulose, I suggest you are barking up the wrong tree, pun intended, and you need to find another culprit. Maybe you are allergic to casein, OMG, another chemical!

Lot’s of products that say high fiber are actually products with cellulose. I was eating high fiber English Muffins and found that I was having trouble with my stomach and after removing them from my diet I realized that It was the cellulose that was causing the problems. If you want fiber just take bran or some other form but be warned cellulose can cause problems.

I found this blog because I have had stomach problems after eating Kraft shredded cheese. This was the only change to my diet each of the last three times I have had stomach issues. I do have celiac’s and have been trying to find if (processed) cellulose can cause this issue. I am currently on Mark Sisson’s Paleo blueprint diet. It has changed things for me dramatically. On the other hand, I have found that I have become more susceptible to some ingredients when I get things that I have cut from my diet for the past 2 years. I believe there may be a link to the way this cellulose is processed. Any ideas?

I think they’ve started doing something else to shredded cheese in the past year or so. It’s just not melting right. Cheese sauces are taking me longer, and we just made a casserole where the cheese hardly looks melted at all. I found this article while searching for an explanation.

Cellulose is “unnatural”? Then I guess plants are unnatural, because cellulose is the main structural element that holds them together. It’s not just found in wood, but in plant stems, leaves, grass, etc. etc. Humans are not able to digest cellulose (only ruminants like cows can), but that doesn’t mean it’s bad for us–in fact, it’s a major source of healthy fiber in our diets.

So if the food industry wants to use this as an anti-caking agent for products like shredded cheese, I see nothing wrong with it. It’s completely harmless and far superior to other commonly used anti-caking agents like silicon dioxide and aluminum compounds. There are far more important food issues to worry about than this.

Our inability to break down cellulose doesn’t make it unnatural for human consumption. In humans, it has a secondary role. It acts as a lubricant for our digestive system. As Harriet Vane stated, it’s found in all plant matter. That includes fruits and vegetables.

The potential problem here is that we are not talking about eating a whole plant, cellulose and all, but extracting one chemical from it and adding it to animal products like cheese or milk. Sometimes, this can have unforeseen consequences.

For instance, it was found that nitrates (normal chemicals found in plants) can combine with amino acids in meats to create carcinogens. Oops. This preservative has been used for centuries, but maybe it wasn’t the best practice in the world. Not all traditional methods of doing things are.

Is it a little weird to put saw dust in your cottage cheese? Definitely. Could there be negative consequences? Maybe. But in the grand scheme of things, we do much weirder things than that. So, this is a pretty small fish to fry in an ocean filled great white sharks.

Clearly there are worst food additives than cellulose. It’s not even a contest. But there is a good argument for whole and minimally processed foods as a general rule.

Here’s a good example of something completely natural that is not really the best thing when it’s extracted and used as a food additive. Fructose.

Fructose can be found in every piece of fruit and in most vegetables. So, what’s wrong with adding a bunch of it to our food? Plenty.

Fructose in low concentrations mixed with the proper amounts of dietary fiber (cellulose, etc.) and a number of other ingredients found in a piece of fruit, is a recipe for good health and long life. High concentrations of fructose in a soft drink, on the other hand, are a formula for disaster.

You might suggest that high fructose corn syrup is no worse than table sugar. And you are probably right. Just as it might be fair to compare poison hemlock to cobra venom.

The difference being the dramatic difference in the health benefits of fruit versus soft drinks, and the more subtle difference in health benefits of sugar cane versus cotton candy. The fructose makes a better case for whole foods, so that’s why I’m using it.

Another interesting bit of whole food trivia. The deadly nightshade group of plants. It includes potatoes, tomatoes, peppers… Alright, maybe not so deadly in all cases. But the alkaloids in these plants (natural insecticides) could make a pretty lethal food additive if it were extracted and concentrated, like we do in the case of other naturally occurring substances.

My point being that while a natural product as a whole might be a good thing, a piece of fruit or a potato, that doesn’t guarantee that a component of it in isolation is a good thing. So, we need to be careful.

Huh… so I shouldn’t eat shredded cheese because there’s wood in it? I guess that means I’ll have to stop eating cinnamon too (which helps regulate blood sugar and is quite healthy) because it’s made from bark. I’ll also have to stop eating bamboo shoots as well because those are just baby trees (Ie, wood). Not to mention I’ll also have to stop drinking barrel aged wine because they’re sitting in wood for years on end. I’m sure that in that time some of the cellulose from the wood leaked into the wine.

Seriously, what a load of profitable malarky that is – if you are afraid of eating cellulose “wood pulp” in the cheap and available cheese which saves poor folks loads of money while making their pasta palatable, then you really should be scared to death of eating fruits and vegetables – they have a lot more of that “wood pulp” per serving!